TJ Luoma

TJ Luoma cut his computing teeth on NeXT computers back in the day when 16MB of RAM and 8MB of disk space was considered a big deal. He helped to maintain the PEAK FTP archive for NeXTStep and OpenStep software. In 2003 he got his first iPod. In 2004 he broke off a brief-but-unfortunate relationship with Windows 2000 and jumped into the Mac OS X world. In 2007 his contract with Sprint expired one week after the iPhone was released and his transformation to Mac user was complete when he ditched his Treo for an iPhone. (He formerly wrote for the Palm Addicts website.)

He and his wife are now the proud parents of an iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPhone 3GS, and an assortment of AirPorts and iPods.

TJ Luoma's Latest Posts

Roundup review of iOS apps to backup your contacts

by TJ Luoma (Feb 19th 2013 9:30AM)

There are scads of apps on the App Store which will offer to backup your contacts. I tried four: a free app, a $1 app, a $2 app, and a $3 app (all prices listed are USD). One was great, two were pretty good, and one was downright atrocious. (Note: all of the apps I reviewed are "universal" ...

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MultiMarkdown Composer 2 is a powerful, flexible Markdown-based text editor

by TJ Luoma (Feb 5th 2013 3:00PM)

MultiMarkdown Composer 2 has just been released and is currently available for US$5. Long story short: if you like to write in Markdown, you should get this app. Why MultiMarkdown? Markdown has been around for almost a decade, and has not changed much since its initial release. It gives ...

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Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is still available for purchase from Apple

by TJ Luoma (Jan 24th 2013 7:00AM)

A reader contacted us the other day with an interesting problem: he wanted to use the latest Java update, but it requires an "Intel-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.7.3 (Lion) or later" and his MacBook was running Snow Leopard. Here's the twist: his MacBook cannot run Mountain Lion (10.8), and ...

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If Messages on OS X 'can't connect,' check your serial number

by TJ Luoma (Jan 14th 2013 6:00PM)

Messages recently stopped working on my iMac. Suddenly it said that it could not connect. More specifically, I could not use Apple's iMessage service. I could use AIM or Google Talk, but iMessage was the service that I wanted to use. (Note: When I refer to 'Messages' I mean the actual ...

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Safari-to-1Password search bookmarklet for iOS

by TJ Luoma (Jan 14th 2013 7:30AM)

1Password on iOS is the best way I've found to manage secure passwords, but the 4.0 version did not make it easy to search for passwords straight from Safari, iCab or another browser (well, not Chrome, which doesn't support bookmarklets). The recent 4.1 release added several bug-fixes and added ...

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A reasonable response to Java security problems (Updated)

by TJ Luoma (Jan 11th 2013 8:30AM)

Update: According to The Mac Observer, Apple has acted proactively to block the Java browser plug-in on Mac machines with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or higher. If you are running an earlier version of OS X, then you should disable Java as noted below. Update 2: In a remarkably speedy turnaround, ...

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Accordance 10 changes everything for the better

by TJ Luoma (Dec 20th 2012 10:00AM)

I have used Accordance Bible Study software for several years, but version 10 (which was released a few months ago) caught me completely by surprise. I knew that there was a new version coming out, but I had not been a part of the beta process and I had not read anything about it before it ...

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Use Transmit to create 'quick upload' droplets

by TJ Luoma (Dec 4th 2012 9:00AM)

Transmit by Panic is one of my favorite apps. If you ever move files from one computer to another, you owe it to yourself to test this one out. Today I want to highlight a feature called "Save To Droplet" which is not new, but is very handy. However, it's not immediately obvious how to use ...

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Securing Your Mac: A Guide for Reasonable People, Version 1.0

by TJ Luoma (Nov 30th 2012 11:00PM)

"How do I protect my Mac online? Should I run any 'security' applications on my Mac?" That question arrived several weeks ago via the contact form here at TUAW, and I have been trying to come up with a reasonable answer to it ever since. That question, or a variation of it, comes fairly ...

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"Should I Sleep?" keeps your Mac awake while in use

by TJ Luoma (Nov 29th 2012 4:00PM)

We've all been there: sitting in front of your Mac when the screen suddenly dims, or goes to sleep right when you were reading something. If you have the screensaver set to require your password to unlock it, this can be a bit of an annoyance. But until recently the only other option was to set a ...

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